The HipMonster’s team was quiet online over the summer but working hard in our workshop finishing up our educational presentation on robotics, Robot Freedom. Here is a quick preview of our Robot Freedom which you can see in person at this year’s Bay Area Maker Faire.
Please note, this material is provided for informational purposes only and is not a guide on how to create the designs. Please take a look at our disclaimer.
Here is our pneumatic robot designed to put a ring into robotics! Learn how to power a robot by just using your own strength and coordinating with a friend. See how many times you can ring the bell!
Our DIY robotic car is completely controlled by our emotional AI platform. It uses sensors to learn from its surroundings and go in the right direction. See it navigate the world with emotions and learn how you can build one too.
Add, subtract, multiply, and divide using our DIY Leibniz calculator. A steampunk computer that you can build at your home. This calculator can do amazing math with a relatively simple design. Before there was electronics, there was gears!
See the updated Number Three, now a fully autonomous android with emotions. It takes in information from a variety of sensors and processes the information to change its mood. Help it learn to not be afraid of humans!
And Number Two (our centaur robot) has gotten updated as well. The AI platform will soon be available on GitHub so you can build your own emotional AI.
Number Three and Number Two also have a hidden feature when you activate a certain sensor.
We are looking forward to seeing all of you at this year’s Maker Faire!
When designing Robot Freedom, our educational presentation on robotics, the HipMonsters team wanted to make robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) approachable to a mass audience in hopes of inspiring the creators within all of us. To achieve this, the core principles for our AI design were defined by the Hip Monster’s sister team (ages 9 and 12 at the time), namely, robots should have distinct personalities, emotions, curiosity and be first and foremost pieces of art.
Given these principles, the foundation of our artificial intelligence framework (show above) is based on Stimulus Organism Response (S-O-R) Theory. S-O-R theory is a psychological framework that enables researchers to explore how stimuli (such as a bell) can impact an organism’s responses, (a dog salivating). Like Pavlov’s dog salivating at the sound of a bell, our robots learn and adapt as they experience outside stimuli and are always eager for more. The robot’s AI is driven by five personality traits that govern how they interpret and respond to stimuli. Below is how a signal from a sensor (stimuli) flows through our AI (organism) and results in an action (response).
Central to the robot’s stimuli exploration is a sensor array of ten sensors ranging from sound to touch. When a robot receives a stimulus, it first processes the information based on its preset personality, then uses past experiences to choose a response based on its personality. Below is a color key to the robot’s sensor display panel.
These experiences are weighted based on the outcome of the robot’s actions allowing the robot to adapt responses to new stimuli. The robots can move, change visual effects, or talk using a chatbot. Below is the full software stack used in our robots.
The HipMonster.com’s team was invited to do a middle school robotics presentation last month to show kids the fun side of robotics and technology. The audience was so awesome and engaged making it a fun experience for everyone.
The theme was how to take over the world using robots, making it fun to keep the students engaged. We used a steampunk template for our slides to match our robot designs and channeled Girl Genius when presenting.
Testing the controllers
The robots got banged up a bit in transport, but nothing got completely broken. The biggest issue was the wires getting pulled out from the Arduinos. Luckily, it was only the breadboard jumper wires which are easy to put back in place. None of the soldered wires were broken which could have been very hard to fix. Breadboard jumpers are designed to be repeatedly taken on and off. They are like tiny colorful USB cables which helps see how what each cable is connected to (this is important because sometimes you can have dozens of wires). When you solder a wire to a controller, it can only be broken to be removed. You solder wires by using melted metal called solder and a really hot device to melt the metal. When a solder connection breaks you need to melt the metal again to reattach.
Fixing the wiring
Here we are putting the finishing touches on Number Two and Number Three. All the robots traveled well and were up in running in thirty minutes except for one whose battery was faulty. When transporting batteries, we take extra care not to damage them and use a special carrying case.
We wrote a quick intro for the robots to perform to set the mood. After the intro, we dove right into robotics.
Here are three robot bodies. The first is Number Three. She can move her arms and hands, and talk. The middle is called Number Five. He can walk forward on his own using his four legs. The last is Number Two. He can’t do much, but he can still talk and move part of his arms.
All the robots lined up in the gym
For each robot body, you need to do several things. There needs to be a skeleton, a power source, and something that makes the robot move. When we are thinking of designs for our robots we often think of animals that already exist. We also take inspiration from robots in different books and webcomics.
Presenting to the school
Number Four is the most complicated one. It took us over one year to build her, and she is still being modified. Many other robots were also not built all at once but were gradually assembled as we got new ideas.
After you build the body, you have to give the robot a brain. in our robots, we use something called an Arduino.
It is basically a tiny computer that you can program to do different things. For our robots, we use Arduino to make the robot walk on its own, so we don’t have to use a remote control. For one robot, the Arduino can also choose the direction that it walks in, and how fast it walks. You can find a simple example here.
We code the Arduino from our computer, then the Arduino sends messages to the robot to control it. We edit the code based on our observations and new ideas.
We have many different types of robots that can move their whole body, each type demonstrates a different way of moving. We have the 4-legged walkers, which are our first moving robot design. They are made of metal pipes and have four legs and wheels for feet. We put wheels on their feet because we wanted less resistance and friction, but we didn’t want the robots to just be like a remote-controlled car. We wanted them to walk. The design of the legs and the “knee” has made a big difference.
Another design is our Seal robot. This one is very different, as it only has two legs and no wheels. The legs pull themselves forward, powered by linear actuators. To make sure that the legs don’t just go backwards and stay in place, we put wedge-shaped bits of foam at the bottom of the seal’s legs. When the seal moves forward, the wedges give no resistance, but when the legs pull back, the wedges stop them.
The next robot is our Bunny robot. The bunny robot is also unique because it was originally designed to hop. The two back legs push it forward, thanks to the springs. This one is powered by air and pistons, so you can get the sudden jolt that is harder to achieve with linear actuators. This robot is also one of the only robots made mostly out of wood. We took the idea for the legs from our wooden toys.
This is the Kangaroo. The kangaroo’s main difference besides the number of legs is the feet. The feet are small animal toys, designed to only go in one direction so they can move forward more efficiently. The back leg powers the whole robot, and we used linear actuators.
The last robot is the Mouse. The mouse is just a broken blow-dryer attached to wheels from some old toys. It is very simple, so we decided to make it walk on its own, completely uncontrolled and completely randomly, controlled by the Arduino. You can see the code here.
The mouse in action
Sorry, this photo was blurry, but the mouse was super fast that day-well charged batteries.
We want to give a big thanks to all who came to our robotics presentation, and everyone who helped and supported us! this was our first big presentation, and we couldn’t be more happy with how it turned out!
Gardening season has started and we want to talk about one of our favorite flowers, Senecio Stellata (Cineraria). They add a wonderful splash of color, and also attract pollinators to make gardens healthier.
When we moved into our home it already had flowers growing everywhere, though we did not know how much until the next spring, when the whole yard came to life. Cineraria flowers were by far the dominant species but we also have a variety of other local species to help our local bee population. We have several hives maintained by our neighbors including this one.
Cineraria grows out of every bit of bare soil in our yard – even in cracks in the cement walkways just like weeds!
The cineraria flowers range in color from a deep purple to an almost white blue and grow up to 4 feet tall! The leaves can get almost as big as your hand and are bright, cheerful green.
They grow in large clumps creating a sea of flowers when in full bloom! The seeds look like little pompoms and blow all over the yard. Sadly, they wilt really quickly if you cut the flowers, so we do not recommend making bouquets out of them, otherwise you will find flower petals and seeds everywhere.
Cineraria, like our native species, does not require a lot of water or fertilizer but does need some special care. The most important thing, if you want to grow native wildflowers in your yard, is not to rip out the plants when they stop blooming but let them reseed. This does make the yard look less formal and more natural for most of the year but in Spring you will be rewarded. In the Bay Area, Cineraria can grow year-round so after it seeds you can trim it down and it may bloom again next year!
Weeding is essential as grass and other weeds will crowd out Cineraria early in the season but with care and patients your yard can become a sea of flowers like ours!
Is it so wrong I keep thinking about chicken and waffles after just one random encounter at Little Skillets? The chicken was so tender they must have been raised in some beautiful land where a hug is given out for free, waffles so sweet I strongly suspect they did something unnatural, not to mention illegal in most states, with donuts and drinks so stiff years of yoga would still make their downward dogs look like a plank. I sit in bed conjuring up the memory of piles of food before me with a burning drinking making it ways down my throat and wonder again and again, “Is this wrong?”
A store with a Hip Monster in mind, Revolver SF (now closed) has the latest fashion and wears. Want a black leather jacket that will make your friends jealous? Need that trendy little cat to fend off the cold night San Francisco wind? Revolver SF is the place to go. Before daring the fashion police in the Mission District it is a must to at least window shop at.
There’s something about a macaron that renders it irresistible to almost everyone — especially Monsters! (What, aren’t you familiar with the Cookie Monster? Monsters are obsessed with dessert!) Is it the fluffy-as-cloud almond batter? Or the intense flavor of the melts-in-your-mouth filling? Or perhaps it’s the cute sandwich forms in a rainbow range of colors? It certainly doesn’t hurt that it is rarely spotted in a U.S. bakery that each discovery carries with it a special hint of decadent pleasure!
Six different macaron flavors from Paulette Macarons: passion fruit, raspberry, sweet wedding almond, Madagascar vanilla, Sicilian pistachio, and a surprisingly delicious violet cassis.
San Francisco foodies have been coveting those lucky enough to reside near Beverly Hills, where Paulette Macarons has been a Mecca for macaron worshipers. Well, great news! Paulette has opened a store in the trendy Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco! Yay!
Hand-made daily with care by master pastry chef Christophe Michalak and air-transported from Beverly Hills, these little cookies come in a dozen flavors, from the traditional Vanilla and Pistachio to the less common Rose and Violet. Load up on your favorite flavor or try one of each. What’s your favorite flavor?
Additional Info
Paulette’s signature box for six macarons.
The Hayes Valley store offers limited indoor and outdoor seating, perfect if you can’t make it out the door without sampling a delicious macaron…or a dozen. Or, order online in case they run out of your favorite flavor!
Just when you think these little desserts couldn’t possibly be dressed up any prettier, Paulette comes through with cute gift boxes perfectly sized for two, six, twelve, or twenty-four macarons. Guaranteed to delight any friend, hostess, or birthday girl/guy/monster!
A great San Francisco comic book store between Noe Valley and the Castro. Small but selective merchandise for the inner Monster in all of us. If you are not into comics this is a good place to get started. Plus us monsters can hang out by the big fake monster outside and nobody notices.
A store with a Hip Monster in mind, Revolver SF (now closed) has the latest fashion and wears. Want a black leather jacket that will make your friends jealous? Need that trendy little cat to fend off the cold night San Francisco wind? Revolver SF is the place to go. Before daring the fashion police in the Mission District it is a must to at least window shop at.
A great San Francisco comic book store between Noe Valley and the Castro. Small but selective merchandise for the inner Monster in all of us. If you are not into comics this is a good place to get started. Plus us monsters can hang out by the big fake monster outside and nobody notices.